Garden City defeats Hutch in overtime thriller

Garden City 

It felt like Garden City turned a corner on Friday night. After losing 21-6 to Manhattan last week, Garden City defeated the Hutchinson Salthawks on the road in overtime 13-7. Colin Kleysteuber had 101 rushing yds on 24 carries with 2 TDs. Hutchinson received the ball 1st in the 1st quarter but was stopped on their 1st drive.

After the punt Garden City set the tone early with a 70 yd drive for a touchdown. Colin Kleysteuber was responsible for 68 of the 70yds on the drive and scored the touchdown as well. However, Kleysteuber did not play on the Buffalo offense’s 2nd drive due to an ankle injury and the Buffaloes failed to score again until overtime, despite the return of Kleysteuber in the 3rd drive for the Buffaloes.

However, the defense came through for the Buffaloes holding Hutchinson to 55 rushing yards on the game. Hutchinson QB Noah Khokhar went 6/11 for 119 yards passing. Defensive Tackle Terell Elliott and the rest of the defensive line were chasing Khokar around all night and sacked him several times.

The Buffalo offense got some momentum going at the end of the 3rd quarter and going into the 4th QTR. They managed to get in the RedZone until penalties set them back and they were looking at 4th and long. Garden City attempted a 40yd field goal but it was blocked by Hutch. The defense managed to stop Hutch again, but a dropped punt return that was recovered by Hutch gave the Salthawks a nearly 60 yd game and put the Salthawks on the Buffaloes 30 yd line. But the defense managed to hold strong once more and blocked Hutch’s field goal attempt.

Next, the game went into overtime and Garden City won the coin toss deciding to let Hutch have the ball 1st. How overtime works in High School Football is like this, each team gets 1 chance to score from the 10yd line with no clock. If both teams fail to score the process restarts. Hutch took the field 1st and did not even come close to scoring with it being 4th and 20 at one point after a loss of yards.

Colin Kleysteuber and the Buffalo offense took the field next. Since Hutch failed to score if Garden City scored then that would be the game. Kleysteuber started overtime off with a 6 yd carry. Then a 3yd carry by Kleysteuber put the Buffaloes within 1 yard of winning the game. Coach Hill would call on his workhorse Kleysteuber once again who punched it into the endzone to win the game.

The win marked a new era for the Buffaloes who failed to make the playoffs each of the last 2 seasons with most of the same players. A road win against Hutch proves that the Buffaloes can play with any team in the state.